Canorrow: Learning about William
by changingdestiny40
Summary: Before rekindling his romance, Oliver decides to be honest with Sara and reveals to her his son's existence.


**A Canarrow one shot in which Oliver tells Sara about his son following her return from the mission with the Legends. Oliver has recovered from his breakup with Felicity and has chosen to rekindle his romance with Sara since their reunion has caused them to realize they still harbor feelings for one another. However, Oliver is not going to make the same mistakes he made with Felicity and has decided that his renewed relationship with Sara is going to be built on honesty. I hope you all enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own "Arrow" or its characters. They're the property of DC, Warner Brothers, the CW, and its showrunners.**

Sara had finally returned home following her and her fellow Legends defeat of Vandal Savage and all of her loved ones were overjoyed to see her again, especially Oliver. She however also returned to the tragic news that her sister Laurel had been killed during Oliver and his team's conflict with Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk, leaving her heartbroken. The funeral had already taken place weeks ago so Sara had missed it, but she did accompany her father to the gravesite in order to pay her respects.

Following the final battle with and defeat of Malcolm, Darhk, and HIVE along with helping the city recover from the destruction of their 'Genesis' operation, Oliver and Sara began spending time together catching up. Oliver told Sara about almost everything that happened when she was away and she in turn told him about her time with the other Legends and all the amazing time periods they'd been to and what they were like. It was very enjoyable time for them getting to know what the other had been up to.

Eventually the two of them started meeting for coffee in the morning on a weekly then a daily basis. Every morning they would go to their favorite coffee shop in Star City and spent their mornings drinking coffee, sometimes with a delicious pastry, while talking about what's been going on in their lives and families. Those times together also caused them to strengthen the bond of their friendship which already existed while becoming even closer to each other than they'd ever been at any point in their lives.

After a while, Oliver and Sara began noticing a reawaking of their feelings towards one another, feelings which they'd still had despite their breakup ages ago. They however decided to take things slow instead of rushing into anything and started by going out to dinner together one evening and then taking it from there. As time passed, their returned feelings for each other began to grow stronger to the point that they could no longer deny what they felt, which was that they were deeply in love with each other. Following many more dates which culminated in their first kiss in three years, a passionate yet gentle kiss filled with love and longing, they decided to rekindle their romance and give their relationship another go.

Having made that decision, Oliver decided the first thing he was going to do was tell Sara something he felt she deserved to know, and it had to do with his son William. He knew that if he were going to restart things with Sara, he had to be completely open and honest with her. Keeping secrets and lying had already cost him his relationship with Felicity and he most certainly wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

One morning, Oliver called Sara and asked him to meet her at his home instead of at the coffee shop where they always spent their mornings together. She was very much puzzled but agreed to come anyway. She later arrived and Oliver let her in while holding two cups of coffee, both espressos, and a brown pastry bag containing four chocolate croissants.

"I see you brought breakfast for us Ollie", Sara said to her boyfriend playfully as she took her coffee and share of croissants after which she and Oliver went to sit on the sofa then began eating their breakfast.

"I most certainly did Sara. Just because we didn't go to the coffee shop this morning doesn't mean I can't bring the goodies home to us", Oliver replied to her with a grin. The two of them then spent the next few minutes eating and chatting lightly while exchanging looks of love and adoration towards each other in addition to giving each other flirtatious smiles. Once they'd finished their breakfast, Oliver became serious and turned his focus completely towards Sara, preparing to tell her what she needed to know. He couldn't keep himself from feeling nervous though he did his best to squash the butterflies fluttering within his stomach, knowing what he was about to do was something that needed to be done.

"You know how much I love you Sara and how much I want things between us to work this time", Oliver began while taking her hands and staring directly into her eyes. "You are currently the most important thing to me right now and I don't want anything to stand in the way of that."

"I love you to Ollie and I feel exactly the same way", Sara responded to him with a loving smile. Oliver smiled back, and then continued.

"Because of that, I need to be completely honest with you and not keep you in the dark if our relationship is going to survive. I made the mistake of keeping things from Felicity and it caused what we had to collapse. I do not wish to repeat that mistake twice and therefore have something very important to tell you before we move forward. I can only hope that what I need to tell you doesn't change things between us".

Sara listened to what Oliver was saying, and then moved her hands from his and used them to cup his face while smiling reassuringly at him.

"I believe the same way as you in that our relationship must be built on honesty, she said to him. "But I sincerely doubt anything you tell me will affect us in a negative way nor will I judge you. But let me assure you that you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to. While I believe in the importance of being open with your partner, there are some things that don't have to be said and I won't begrudge you of keeping something to yourself if you have good reason to. All of us have a right to our secrets."

Oliver was relieved to hear those words and wished Felicity would've been as understanding during their relationship. He still felt however that Sara deserved to know about his son's existence.

"You have no idea how much those words mean to me Sara or how grateful I am that you trust me", he responded to her with relief in his voice. "What I need to tell you though is very important and feel it's something you need to know before we continue to move forward in our relationship. I must warn you that what I'm about to reveal will be huge and hope it will not ruin what we currently have."

Sara's curiosity peaked at those words but she did her best to reassure him once more.

"I'm sure that whatever it is, we can deal with it, no matter how large it may be. And believe me when I say that whatever baggage you have, it doesn't matter to me because there is nothing in this world that would make me not love you."

Oliver breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the heavens for giving him a woman like Sara to be his soul mate. He then went ahead and began telling her what he felt he needed to reveal to her.

"Instead of beating around the bush, I'm just going to be straightforward with you and here it is", Oliver started then paused for a moment, steeling himself for what he was about to reveal, and then continued. "I have a son, nine years old, and his name is William." Having revealed that bombshell, he looked over at Sara with apprehension, waiting for her reaction.

Upon hearing this, Sara's eyes widened in shock and it took her a bit to process this reveal.

"You have a son?", she asked her boyfriend with surprise in her voice. He nodded in response and went on to explain the circumstances on how it came to be.

"This happened when I was dating your sister. I wasn't the best kind of person back then and was selfish. The thing is, you weren't the only one I cheated on Laurel with."

Sara wasn't at all shocked by that bit of info. Oliver was known to be a notorious womanizer back in the day. She however remained silent and let Oliver continue.

"One of those women I was involved with was named Samantha. It was a one night stand which didn't mean anything to either of us. She ended up becoming pregnant and told me and I later told my mom not knowing how to handle this, not just because of Laurel but also since I had no idea what I'd do with a child and wasn't ready to take responsibility for my actions. Unbeknownst to me, after I told my mom, she called Samantha over and paid her a million dollars to move away and tell me she miscarried."

Sara couldn't believe Oliver's own mother would do something like that and shook her head in anger and disappointment.

"How did you find out about William?", she asked him, wondering how he was aware of his son's existence if Samantha told him that she lost their son.

"Me and my team went over to Central City to help Barry protect our new friends and your eventual teammates Kendra and Carter from Vandal Savage last year. While there, I noticed Samantha and with her a young boy who appeared to be nine years of age. When I saw him, I wondered if he could possibly be my son and if Samantha had lied about losing him. I needed to be sure however, so I later went to say hi to her under the guise of catching up and subtly removed a strand of hair from the boy's head and brought it to Barry for DNA testing along with a made up story, and the test revealed that the boy was indeed my son.

"This is where the story gets tricky, but it seems Barry traveled back in time because his, mine, Carter, and Kendra's confrontation with Savage was a disaster and all of us along with everyone else died and part of it was because my head wasn't in the game. Apparently Felicity had found out about my son and was furious I'd kept it hidden from her. According to Barry, she broke up with me over it and that's why I wasn't focused. If I'm correct that what happened this time around also happened in the other timeline, I'd gone to see Samantha and confronted her with the truth and she told me about my mom paying her off. It took some convincing, but she finally decided to allow me to get to know my son but only if I kept his existence from everyone. I didn't want to do that but agreed if it would allow me to see him."

While finding the rest of the story fascinating and engaging, Sara was shocked that Samantha had given Oliver such an outrageous ultimatum in exchange for bonding with his son and it angered her. She may have been William's mother, but who was she to tell him who he could and could not tell about him. Oliver, as William's father, had rights to and they should've made a decision together on how to handle parental rights.

"I can't believe Samantha would force you to make that kind of concession just to see your own son. That is ridiculous!", Sara said to her boyfriend with anger while shaking her head. "You really should've set the record straight with her and given her what for!"

Oliver sighed and did his best to explain why Samantha did what she did.

"The reason she set those terms Sara was because she didn't want our worlds to merge, and considering what was going on in our city because of Darhk, she did have a point and was only trying to keep our son safe. And believe me when I say that there's no way I would've brought him here while Darhk had it under siege. In addition, Samantha only remembered me as the reckless playboy and didn't want her son falling under that type of influence."

Sara took a breath, knowing that Oliver had a point, and also understood where Samantha was coming from. She also knew that if she were a mother, she would've done whatever it took to protect her child, whether it be from dangerous forces or a reckless father, especially if she hadn't seen him in years and didn't know if he changed or not. She however knew there was a better way for the situation and that forcing that kind of decision on Oliver's shoulders was not the way to go. Different terms could've been set such as keeping William from Star City while it was under attack and if necessary, giving Oliver the choice of telling those closest to him about his son but perhaps swearing them all to secrecy until the enemies were neutralized.

"I'm assuming Felicity found out about William and it caused things to end badly between the two of you", Sara realized upon remembering what Oliver said earlier about his and Felicity's relationship coming to an end due to secrets.

"It happened a few short months later. In fact, I wonder if it was because of Barry's time travel. I once told your sister this, but he explained to me that it seems time, if altered, always corrects itself and replicates the changed event in one fashion or another. That has caused me to wonder sometimes if the breakup between me and Felicity over William happened since it also happened in the original timeline and in turn was part of the timeline resetting itself", Oliver answered her, then paused for a moment and considered that notion like he'd done many times before. He then continued on.

"During that time, Darhk approached and told me he had kidnapped William and said I had to drop out of the mayoral race if I wanted to see my son again. There wasn't any way I could fight him with his advantage of magic over me so I contacted a friend named Mari McCabe who's also a hero operating in Detroit. Her code name is Vixen. She joined me and the rest of the team in locating William and after many tries finally recovered him while Mari destroyed the totem which gave Darhk his powers. I did however pull out of the race per his demands during the rescue mission in case we weren't successful. After that, I and William's mother made a decision, both because of what had happened, along with some advice that Mari gave me, to transport him far away from here while I also created a video to show him when he became 18 about who I was and why he was sent away. Once everything was settled however, Felicity was angry with me for not only keeping William's existence from her despite Samantha's demands but also because I left her out of the decision to send William away and proceeded to end our engagement and our relationship."

Having revealed all of this to Sara, Oliver sighed deeply and placed his hands on his forehead, shaking his head. After he got his emotions settled from remembering that incident, he looked back at Sara with love and desperation while taking her hands and grasping them tightly.

"That's why I told you all of this Sara. My keeping that secret from Felicity destroyed our relationship and I don't want to ever lose you over secrets and lack of honesty. You are my other half and the love of my life and therefore deserve to know every part of me, including the fact that I have a son. I hope none of this changes the way you feel about me and that you still wish to pursue a future with me despite all of this", Oliver finished, then anxiously waited for her response with bated breath.

Sara listened to all that her boyfriend had to say and once he'd finished, immediately took him in her arms and embraced him tightly, tears streaming down her face over his fear that her learning about his son would cause her to leave him. She didn't even care about that and was absolutely livid Felicity would break up with him over it. Furthermore, who did Felicity think she was to have her feelings hurt over his not consulting her on what to do with his son? She was not the parent and wasn't even Oliver's wife and therefore was out of line as far as Sara was concerned. It's true that Oliver could've asked Felicity's opinion on the matter but the decision was ultimately Oliver's to make and he made what he felt was the best choice to protect his son, a choice Sara also agreed with. She eventually pulled away from him but kept one arm wrapped around his shoulders and stared into his eyes with all the love she could muster.

"I would never abandon you over something like that Ollie. I know along with everyone else that you used to be quite the ladies man and it wouldn't even be surprising if you had multiple Oliver juniors running around out there. I don't care about any of that. You're a different man now and that's the man I desire and care for. In addition, while I'm touched that you told me about this, I honestly wouldn't have been upset if you'd kept it from me for a good reason and understand that you were only complying with Samantha's request, a request I absolutely do not agree with but do understand why she made it. As for how Felicity handled that situation, I find it to be very immature of her and it was her own fault that things ended between you two. You're the parent, not her, and it was yours and Samantha's decision in deciding the best way to protect William. Some secrets are best kept for a reason and this was one secret you had every right to keep. I love you, want to have a future with you, and that's all that matters to me."

Oliver was so relieved to hear everything Sara had to tell him in response to his news and once again thanked the heavens for giving him such a kind, caring, and understanding woman. He hugged her gratefully in response and was content to just hold her and she was of like mind.

"Thank you so much for being accepting of me and assuaging my fears of losing you over what I've revealed to you about this piece of my life. You truly are one of a kind", he whispered in her ear while continuing to hold on to her.

"Of course Ollie. I'll always be there for you and will never leave you no matter what. I made that mistake three years ago already and have no intention of repeating it. You are truly the only man for me", Sara answered him with a contented voice after which they shared a sweet kiss and took comfort in the fact that no matter what, they were inseparable and nothing, not even their past, would ever destroy what they shared. They were together and that's what was ultimately important to them.

 **The End**

 **And that's it my faithful readers. I hope all of you enjoyed it. In regards to the line in which Sara tells Oliver that there was nothing in this world that would make her not love him, I borrowed it from an episode of "** ** _Jane the Virgin"_** **from last season. That line sounded very sweet to me and I felt it would fit in this story as part of Sara's reassurance towards Oliver. If any of you don't watch that series, please check it out. It's very good.**

 **See you later folks.**


End file.
